Category Archives: Recipes
I’ve been dreaming of a white pizza
Not sure why but I got a notion to build a pizza with a white sauce today. I surfed around looking at recipes and went with what I would call a Mornay sauce if it was over pasta. Just a basic white sauce, a roux of flour and butter with milk added and cheese stirred in as it thickened. I grated some Parmesan and Romano for this one, about 2 cups. The white sauce was 2T each of butter and flour and a cup and a bit of milk. I splashed in a wee bit more milk when it looked like the sauce was a bit thick. I ended up troweling it onto the pizza dough. I stirred in some dried basil, was really wishing I had some fresh, and five cloves of smashed and minced garlic.
I layered in slices of mozzarella, and added blanched broccoli and diced grilled chicken. Grated some more Parmesan on top but I don’t think it was needed.
This went into a 375 oven. I looked in after 12 minutes and saw that it wasn’t even close yet. I took the opportunity to brush some olive oil onto the crust. The sauce and the mozzarella combined into a roiling bubbly sea with islands of green dotted about and I was worried that the pizza would be a bust. It was smelling great, at any rate. I lost track of the time but I’d guess it was in there for another 20 minutes. I pulled it out when the top was showing some nice color.
The sauce was still very liquid as it came out but it set up nicely as it cooled a bit and wasn’t runny, relieving me of that particular worry. Makes for a poor picture! LOL
Some salt and fresh ground pepper, a generous sprinkle of red pepper flakes, and it was ready. I was starved and the pizza did not disappoint me at all. Great garlic and cheese flavors, and there will be a rematch tomorrow:
Mmm… Meatloaf
Thawed a couple of links of Italian sausage and a like amount of hamburger this afternoon while I piddled about in the basement. Nothing special about the recipe, an egg, a splash of milk, a handful of bread crumbs, some Parmesan and an onion, some minced bell peppers. Odds and ends of spices: dried basil, oregano, onion powder and garlic. Tossed some veggies in after the meatloaf had a head start, then cranked the heat when the meatloaf came out. By the time the gravy was ready the veggies had some nice color:
Pea Soup, with Enhancements
I’ve been looking at a jar of split peas in the pantry for a while, decided today was the day for them. Took the opportunity to scrounge some tasso and ham from the freezer. I’ve been using from those two packages of meat as required for this and that, this dish finished them both off. I always dice onions for my pea soups, and lately have been adding carrots for the color if for no other reason. This pot had been simmering for a couple of hours and wasn’t getting quite thick enough to suit me and so I diced and added a couple of potatoes for the starch. I may do it every time because this was some very good soup. There are a few bay leaves in it, and a half teaspoon of dried thyme along with some onion and garlic powders.
Soup needs some decent bread. I made some cornbread for this batch, I bet a good hearty hunk of whole wheat bread fresh from the oven would just kill with this. 
The cornbread is the standard recipe from the back of the corn meal canister, with additions of cheddar cheese and minced red and green bell peppers. The link goes to a recipe with bacon and jalapenos but it has the basic recipe in there too. Makes a nice garnish, eh?
Mmm… soup ‘n sammich
The classic lunch menu. Grilled cheese is pretty easy do get wrong, the cheese needs to be hot enough to ooze and that takes enough time that it’s easy to burn the bread. There are a few ways around this – low and slow in a covered skillet or you can use a the shortcut a microwave offers. A minute or two total in short sessions will preheat the cheese enough to let you use a bit higher flame in the skillet for a faster browning. I used both methods today for this sandwich because the bread started frozen and the slice of ham introduced another delay. Olive oil was the lube of choice today, a mix of olive oil and butter works great. Nothing wrong with using straight butter.
Red Beans and Rice with Pickled Pork
We usually watch recorded episodes of cooking shows while we are eating dinner. We have a small TV on a counter hooked up to a “nettop” computer and also to a Dish DVR. The computer is great for looking up recipes online, and the DVR has forever ruined me for watching broadcast TV. Anyway, the other day we had an old Alton Brown show playing when he started in on pickling pork for red beans and rice. I’m pretty sure I’d never heard about such a thing but he made it sound good enough to try. I cut up some pork,
assembled the pickling solution, and boiled it for the few minutes the recipe specified.
Then it was just a matter of letting the brine do it’s work for three days. Longer would be fine but two weeks seems to be all Alton was comfortable with before use or draining and freezing the meat. This meat has had the three days and has been drained and briefly rinsed to wash off the odd mustard seed:
They are just a tad larger than the inch cubes the recipe wanted, I cut them down a bit before stirring them into the pot.
Bring everything to a boil then cover and reduce the heat to a low simmer, give them a couple of hours covered then remove the lid and raise the heat a little so the liquid reduces to where you want it to be. Serve over rice with a side of cheddar cornbread. Add extra hot sauce as desired.
Thursday Recipe Exchange: Mardi Gras!
I’m getting ready to travel again, so I’m swamped with getting everything done at work and home. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still celebrate Fat Tuesday with some New Orleans style food and drink. Bring on your party recipes. And next week let’s go vegetarian.
I wanted to do gumbo, but didn’t have time to recipe test anything this week, except a death-by-chocolate Texas Sheet Cake, and I find my own gumbo recipes lacking. Luckily when it comes to gumbo, JeffreyW runs circles around me. Here’s his take on a shrimp gumbo:
I was rummaging about in the big freezer and turned up a stick of Andouille sausage. That put me of a mind to make a pot of gumbo. I noticed that Alton Brown was touting a method of making a brown roux in the oven that seemed to be foolproof, and didn’t require one to stand over the stove stirring for a half hour and more:
Place the vegetable oil and flour into a 5 to 6-quart cast iron Dutch oven and whisk together to combine. Place on the middle shelf of the oven, uncovered, and bake for 1 1/2 hours, whisking 2 to 3 times throughout the cooking process.
Seemed to work pretty well:
This was after 90 minutes. It could have spent a little longer and been a bit more brown but I went with it as you see it. More or less following Alton’s recipe, I put it over a medium flame on the cooktop and stirred in diced celery, green peppers, and onion. The roux turned right away into thick mud but I kept stirring it until the veggies softened a bit, about ten minutes. Next was several cups (4-5?) of the stock the chicken I used was cooked in, fortified with some Creole seasoning, along with the canned tomato bits I used in lieu of fresh. I did have fresh thyme and even grow my own bay leaves now. That simmered for a half hour before I added the cooked chicken, thawed pre-cooked shrimp, and the sliced and browned Andouille sausage.
Serve over rice, and be sure to have a bottle of hot sauce on the table lest you be taunted.
Hit the comments with your own Mardi Gras recipes and I’ll see you next week! - TaMara
Cross-posted at Balloon-Juice.
Cubano
These are yummy. I dragged my George Foreman grill out of storage for this one. Stopped by the store on the way home from a trip to the FedEx drop off place and saw they had a sale on roast pork, already sliced. I had this made in my mind before the deli had it bagged for me.
Smear mustard on both sides of a largish sub loaf, layer on ham and pork, some cheese, and sliced dill pickles. This one has provolone. Butter the top and bottom of the buns and have at it. Panini press is perfect, a G. Foreman grill is great. You can also do some “field expedient” improv.
Chicken in a cream of onion gravy
I’ve had a can of cream of onion soup in the cupboard for a long time and decided to move it out today. I bought it for a project that I went a different way on and it became surplus. I was pretty sure I could jazz it up some by sauteing some fresh onions so that’s the way it went tonight. First I browned some chicken parts in olive oil, these were boneless, skinless thighs:
I set those aside and browned a couple of small to medium onions in the same pan along with some minced garlic.
When the onions had browned a little I poured in a can’s worth of heavy cream, and then the condensed soup.
And then returned the chicken to the pan and covered it as it simmered and the veggies in the oven roasted.
We are becoming quite fond of roasted parsnips. Also tonight there were white potatoes, carrots, and Brussels sprouts. These were tossed with olive oil and seasoned with garlic powder and salt and pepper. I didn’t time them but about 45 minutes at 375 will do it. They made a pretty platter with the chicken and onion gravy.
Posole
Just a photo tonight. Here’s a recipe, this is seriously easy to do. I used some pork left over from a secret project. 
Stay tuned!
Valentine’s Chocolates
Photo from FoodNetwork.com
I’ve never done a Molten Lava Cake. I’ve always wanted to, just haven’t gotten around to it. I hear they are very easy. I googled around to find one that had good ratings. The recipes vary greatly, so I decided to go to a reliable source: The Pioneer Woman. She liked this recipe from Tasty Kitchen.
Molten Chocolate Cake – by Brandielle
- 4 pieces (squares) Semi-sweet Baking Chocolate
- ½ cups Butter
- 1 cup Powdered Sugar
- 2 whole Eggs
- 2 whole Egg Yolks
- 6 Tablespoons Flour
- 2 cups Real Whipping Cream (seriously It’s So Much Better!)
- 2 Tablespoons Sugar
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Spray 4 custard cups with Pam and place on cookie sheet.
Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl on high for about 1 minute, until butter is melted. whisk until chocolate is also melted.
Stir in sugar until well blended. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks. Stir in flour.
Divide between cups.
Bake 13-14 minutes until sides are firm and center is soft. Let stand 1 minute.
Combine sugar and heavy cream and whip until stiff.
Invert cakes on dishes and top with whipped cream.
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I do make a mean pudding cake – which is basically an extra-large lava cake. And to make it even tastier, I substitute coffee for the boiling water. It doesn’t get any simpler than this:
Mocha Cake
- 1 cup flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup milk
- 3 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp vanilla
====
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
- 1 cup very hot coffee**
- 8×8 inch baking dish, lightly oiled
Preheat oven to 350°
This is a pudding style cake, so you don’t want to over bake it. You’ll serve it warm and directly from the pan. When you cut into it a thick, gooey chocolate center will be revealed.
From the top list: combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder & salt. Combine milk, oil, & vanilla, mix well and add to flour mixture. Stir well. Pour batter into baking dish. From the bottom list: combine sugar & cocoa and sprinkle over batter. Pour hot coffee over batter – DO NOT stir. Bake for 30 minutes or until center springs back when touched, do not over bake.
** for a stronger coffee flavor, double the ground coffee to water ratio, or use espresso.
Also, for a fun read, head over to The Pioneer Woman.
TaMara
jeffreyww
LFern7
indylib
